1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing device, method thereof and a recording medium and relates in particular to an information processing device, method thereof and a recording medium ideal for utilization in devices connected to a digital bus such as IEEE1394 bus, etc.
2. Description of the Related Art
Along with the advances of digital technology in recent years, the use of networks to mutually connect devices by a digital bus has gradually spread. One example of a digital bus is the IEEE1394 digital serial bus. As an isochronous channel resource method for the IEEE1394 digital serial bus the applicants previously proposed, in Japanese Patent Application No. 350077/1999, a method to prevent conflicts from occurring among devices set with different channels, and transmit and receive channels set in advance for each device, when devices connected to the IEEE1394 bus are transmitting and receiving signals.
In this proposed method, the device set as the receiver is in standby awaiting input of signals from a channel set in advance, the transmitter device sends the signal on the preset channel without designating the receiver of the signal and thus allows passive transmission and reception of the signal. Channel setting of this kind is implemented by broadcast connections (hereafter, xe2x80x9cB.C. connectionxe2x80x9d) specified in the IEEE1394 standards or the IEC-61883-1 standards, and the set channel is called the default channel.
The overall concept of the default channel is based on the precondition that when the transmit device has been changed such as by a user operation, a new device can transmit signals on the same channel. The new transmit device captures (takes over) the previously established B.C. connection and transmits signals over that captured channel so that the input signals are now switched to the receive device without the receive device performing any operation.
A point-to-point (P.P.) connection is established and overlapped onto the already established B.C. connection, when the receive device is to record the input signals onto an internal recording medium, etc. The point-to-point connection ensures that other signals will not be recorded if the transmit and receive channel the receive device uses to record signals, is captured by other devices.
In this way, a P.P. connection is therefore overlapped onto the previously established B.C. connection as described above when the receive device is recording input signals, so other transmit devices therefore cannot capture that channel. Such an arrangement is described while referring to FIG. 1.
In the status shown in FIG. 1A, a DTV (digital television receiver) 1, a DVTR (digital video tape recorder) 2-1, and a DVTR 2xe2x80x942 are mutually connected to an IEEE1394 bus 4 as shown in FIG. 1A, and when a DVTR 2-1 has started video recording, a P.P. connection is overlapped onto the B.C. connection between the DTV 1 and the DVTR 2-1. When the DVTR 2-1 for example, has started recording, a P.P. connection is overlapped onto the B.C. connection between the DTV 1 and DVTR 2-1. When the user views/hears a signal from DVTR 2xe2x80x942 the next time, a P.P. connection is already established at DTV 1 with the DVTR 2-1, so the channel cannot be captured. Consequently, the DTV 1 cannot input the signal from the DVTR 2 (DVTR 2xe2x80x942 cannot output signals to DTV 1). The user cannot therefore view/hear signals from DVTR 2xe2x80x942.
As described above, a channel management method of this kind based on B.C. connections has the problem that the input signal cannot be switched when a P.P. connection has been established such as by starting a recording operation.
A channel management method based on P.P. connections instead of being based on B.C. connections was proposed in the related art. In this method, an isochronous signal send/receive connection was established by utilizing P.P. connections in all devices connected by an IEEE1394 bus. A method of this kind is described while referring to FIG. 2.
When the DTV 1 and DVTR 2-1 must be changed from the P.P. connection shown in FIG. 2A, to the P.P. connection of DTV 1 and DVTR 2xe2x80x942 as shown in FIG. 2C, the user first of all severs the connection between DTV 1 and DVTR 2. That connection is severed by stopping the play operation for example by pressing the DVTR 2-1 stop button. The user from the DTV 1 side, then selects DVTR 2xe2x80x942 as the connection target, and starts outputting the signal in DVTR 2xe2x80x942 for example by pressing the play button.
In a channel management method of this kind based on P.P. connections, every time a change is made in the transmit device for transmitting signals that the user wants to view/hear, the user must use the receive device, to select the signal input destination (transmit source) constituting the transmit device, and then must arrange the processing so that the signal is output with the selected transmit device. Having to make settings on both the transmit device and the receive device in this way is exceedingly troublesome for the user.
In view of the above-mentioned problems with the related art, this invention has the object of reducing the number of user operations by allowing the elimination or restoration of P.P. connections overlapped onto B.C. connections and thus provide a device convenient for the user.
The information processing device of the present invention, along with establishing a broadcast connection, comprises: first establishing means for establishing a point-to-point connection on the broadcast connection channel, cancel means for canceling point-to-point connections established by the first establishing means, and second establishing means for establishing on the channel, the point-to-point connection canceled by the canceling means.
The device having a point-to-point connection established by the second establishing means may comprise a device having a point-to-point connection established by the first establishing means, a device outputting information input when the point-to-point connection of the second establishing means was established, and a device designated by the user.
The information processing device of the present invention further comprises memory means from among at least one of: information relating to the device with a broadcast connection and a point-to-point connection established by the first establishing means, information relating to a device exchanging data with a broadcast connection established when the point-to-point connection was canceled by the cancel means, and information relating to a device with a point-to-point connection established by the second establishing means.
The information processing device of this invention as described above, along with establishing a broadcast connection, also establishes a point-to-point connection on the broadcast connection channel, and cancels and restores the established point-to-point connection, and so is capable of easily switching the input information (device).
In the specifications of the present invention, the steps describing the program provided by the medium are of course performed in a time sequence according to the order the steps are listed. However the processing of these steps need not always be implemented in a time sequence and the steps may be implemented in serial or in parallel. Also in the specifications of the present invention, the term xe2x80x9csystemxe2x80x9d indicates the overall device comprising a plurality of devices.